It Is No Marvel After All These Wars Poem by Mary Angela Douglas

..Irish poets, learn your trade...'William Butler Yeats

it is no marvel after all these wars

that we should tune the harp once more

and find in every leaf and fin

a gold that limns it all.

Yeats came not to vanish here.

become the sound of distant spheres

disclose the waning, yearning years

and bring to light their sullen eclipse.

let jewels still fall from poet's lips

who know the mysteries are real

who dare to form from what they feel

a music keened, a boat well keeled

and let the winds of God drive on

in every trembling, rose like song but

rooted in a firmer zeal

in beauty founded, found again

beyond the weal of human sin

let heart be tested in the fire

and find in words the worlds expired

that lived on in the banished soul.

let language be the bell that tolls.

and not the slogan that pretends.

mary angela douglas 28 july 2019